Wally Karbo dies
jd holmbeck x-3255
Thursday March 25. For those of us who grew up watching the AWA, Wally
would provide comic relief with his loud sport coats, coke bottle glasses
and second-generation Polish accent. His threats of "fines and
suspensions" to heels such as Bobby Heenan and Jesse Vetura were
priceless.
Attached is the obtuary that appeared in the Friday Minneapolis Star Tribune.
--
Jeff Holmbeck
Jeff.H...@cdc.com
Control Data Systems, Inc.
(612)482-3255
Wrestling legend Wally Karbo dies
Wally Karbo's name was synonymous with professional wrestling for more
than 50 years.
His face, voice and mannerisms were familiar to generations of fans who
watched All-Star Wrestling on Saturday morning television.
"Wally was wrestling to Minnesota," said Jesse (The Body) Ventura.
"Wally's a legend."
Karbo, 77, of Bloomington, was having lunch with a friend Thursday when
he suffered a heart attack. He was pronounced dead at Fairview Southdale
Hospital in Edina.
In recent years he had been a commissioner of the Ladies Professional
Wrestling Association, but he got his start in the business nearly 60 years
ago as a kid straight out of parochial school.
Wally Joseph Karbo was born and raised in northeast Minneapolis, the son
of Polish immigrants. He graduated from De La Salle High School in 1934
and was quite an athlete in his own right. He played basketball and was
offered a scholarship to the University of Notre Dame, said his brother
Mike.
Finances were tight, and he chose not to go to college. Instead, he started
hanging around gyms with his next door neighbor, Stan Mayslack, who
wanted to be a wrestler. In time he met Tony Stecher, the top boxing and
Wrestling promoter in Minneapolis in the l930s.
He worked for Stecher as an office boy/go-fer and eventually was offered
a job as referee for out-of-town wrestling matches. By the time he was
23 or 24, he had refereed close to 8,000 matches, his brother said. During
his lifetime it was closer to 25,000.
Soon he began organizing matches in Toronto, Winnipeg and the Dakotas
and as far west as Denver. By the 1940s he had moved into the Twin Cities
and elsewhere in Minnesota, and was one of the best known promoters in
the country.
"He was really well respected," Mike Karbo said yesterday. "He really was
in love with it."
He and Vern Gagne were partners in the American Wrestling Association
for more than three decades. The association's All-Star Wrestling debuted
on TV in the early 1950s, and the matches continued across the country.
"He would talk in circles and he would garble his words and he would do
all kinds of stuff that just endeared him to people," said David Lee, his
attorney and long time friend. "Wally would always treat people fairly . . .
and they were loyal to him and vice versa."
Karbo never thought he was better than any body else, said Ed Sharkey, a
former wrestler turned trainer turned promoter.
"He wasn't a guy who wore a three-piece suit and sat in an office," he said.
"He was one of the guys. He wanted to ride in the car with the boys. He
wanted to go have a beer with the boys."
Karbo was to have received a lifetime achievement award at a Pro
Wrestling America match on April 17, Sharkey said. "I don't know what
we're going to do," he said. "The whole wrestling community is just
shattered."
Ventura said that he started wrestling for the association in 1978-79, but
that he had watched Karbo on TV since he was a little boy. "Wally was sly
like a fox," he said. "A lot of people perceived Wally as not being real
brainy, but Wally Karbo knew the wrestling business better than any body
who's been in it. Wally could recognize talent and who could draw money.
He enjoyed life to the fullest."
Karbo sold his interest in the association in about 1984. He continued to
promote women's wrestling until the day he died.
He also was known for his civic contributions. He had been honored for his
work with the March of Dimes, Variety Club Heart Hospital at the
University of Minnesota and other organizations.
He visited his 100-year-old mother at a nursing home every day. When he
had time, he found great joy in going on fishing and hunting trips with his
buddies.